Why is this research important for Alberta ag?
Fast detection of pathogens in contaminated materials is important for the safety of the food supply and is economically valuable to the food industry. Since the contamination often occurs in very low numbers of bacterial cells in a given volume of food, a long duration of enrichment, often over 18-24 hours, is required to allow an increase in the number of bacterial cells for the detection with currently available methods.
Shorter enrichment times, as well as rapid sample preparation and detection methods, can reduce total testing time, thereby allowing faster release of food products to the market. In a prior research project, researchers developed a short enrichment procedure, a simple sample clean-up process for detection via polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
This research will expand on existing capabilities to detect pathogens in food and other matrices and to shorten the time of sample preparation and enrichment to detection of a pathogen.
What benefits can producers expect from this research?
With this improved sample volume for detection, 3M testing time (enrichment and detection) of food pathogens will be reduced significantly.
How will these research findings reach producers on-farm?
Findings will be shared with end-users through one-on-one contacts with companies that provide testing supplies for the agri-food industry.